Sweating it out in a powerless city

Santanu Saraswati

What is hell? Depends. But one widely endorsed definition would be: endless power cuts+ delayed monsoon + humidity levels above 80 per cent. Each is an oppressive reality in Kolkata.
With no assurance from Alipore met office of early rain and only tentative promises from Victoria House of ‘speedy restoration’ of the collapsed power system, Kolkata, trapped in a pressure-cooker situation, gasped through Wednesday.
The met department warned that the current hot and humid spell would continue in the city, and relief, if any, would be available across another 48 hours, though the North Bengal districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar might receive some apology of rain. A senior official at Alipore explained that though monsoon had arrived well in advance of its scheduled date (June 8) no low-pressure trough or depression had formed over the North Bay of Bengal. This was impeding the formation rain clouds. But a low-pressure trough over sub-Himalayan West Bengal would give north Bengal some rain. The heat-wave condition in central and north India was the monsoon’s further advance, he said.
Met department director G.C. Debnath said: “The low-pressure that had developed over the north eastern parts of the Bay a few days ago has vanished. Initially we thought it might deepen into a depression and then into a cyclone. But as the conditions were not conducive it moved away towards Myanmar.”
Since nobody could possibly stop it, home secretary Ardhendu Sen did the next best thing. He announced on Tuesday that normal power supply would resume from Wednesday. But promising and performing are two different things.
The power utility admitted that with repairs at the Budge Budge unit expected to take more time, the city would have to take long hours of power cut at least for one more day.
Sen had assured that the power cuts would happen only between 4 pm and midnight. In reality, the city began having power cuts since early morning. That’s because there was very little change in the shortfall figure — from 360-mega watts to 290-mega watts. In areas like Mall Road, Maniktala Main Road, Garia, Jadavpur, Kalikapur and parts of Kasba the power cuts extended beyond four hours.
CESC executive director Dilip Sen suggested that the power situation could improve if consumers switched off their air-conditioners in the evening. “But we can only request people. We can’t force them,” he said.
He promised a vastly improved situation from September once unit III of the Budge Budge thermal power plant starts commercial generation.
“With its present distribution capacity, the power utility could only add on 50-mega watts. We are facing problems in finding land to develop our distribution system and connect unit with the city’s distribution network. Even the state board is going through similar problems at Rajarhat. People are sensitive about their land. We are trying our best,” Mani Shankar Mukherjee, chief advisor (corporate communication), CESC, said.
Meanwhile heat wave is claiming lives. Two persons, Pradip Basak, 54, and Bajle Mardi, 42 died from sunstrokes in Raiganj on Tuesday. But then the power crisis won’t last forever, and it will rain in the city. The ‘hell’ the state is living through will go away for one more year.
santanu_saraswati@hotmail.com